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How else to explain this revisionist history:

Pete Seeger revealed as a real mensch in "The Protest Singer"

A compact but revealing look at legendary folk singer and activist Pete Seeger.

By Curt Schleier
Special to The Seattle Times

"The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger," by Alec Wilkinson

If you are unfamiliar with him, allow me to sum up what I know: Pete Seeger is a mensch. Literally translated, "mensch" means man. But as with so many other Yiddish words, it means much more. A mensch is an honorable, righteous human being, a stand-up guy. And when it comes to Seeger, it is true both figuratively and literally.

In the 1930s and '40s, Pete stood up for farmers and unions. In the '50s and '60s, he was there for the civil-rights movement. He fought to end the war in Vietnam, and championed every other "lefty" cause. But as Wilkinson points out, though Seeger was at one time a member of the Communist party, he is at heart really a conservative.

"He believes ardently in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. His interpretation of them is literal. ... There is no conceit he has more emphatically embraced than that all human beings are created equal. In the early and middle part of the 20th Century, such a conviction made a person not a patriot but a socialist."